Strategic Plan, Part 2: Internal Environmental Analysis

Strategic Plan, Part 2: Internal Environmental Analysis

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Introduction

In the preceding section of the Strategic Plan, I analyzed Apple, Inc.’s sustainable business landscape. This paper is meant to analyze Apple’s internal and external environment to assess the efficiency of the market. I will also analyze Apple’s strengths, weaknesses organizational structure and effects on its operational efficiency.

Apple’s Internal Environment

Apple’s internal environment is one of stability, power, innovation, and technological capabilities. This company’s security is of extreme importance and is granted priority than the development of new products and services. Although this development fuels the company’s success and sells more goods, technical protection ensures the company’s ability to continue selling. One employee said that employees working on secret projects at Apple must “pass through a maze of security doors, swiping their badges again and again and finally entering a numeric code to reach their offices.” Once inside the top-secret areas, employees are often monitored by surveillance cameras as they work. Those working with the most sensitive projects are allegedly instructed to “cover up devices with black cloaks when they are working on them and turn on a red warning light when devices are unmasked so that everyone knows to be extra-careful.” Such initiatives allow the company to monitor the security of every employee.

The organization still boasts one of their most dedicated communities of workers, though protection is strict. The employees are regarded as a team and manage their individual tasks entirely. Apple has a corporate culture that supports the various strategic goals of human resources. For starters, the cultural characteristics of a business correlate with the push for creativity, which is a major factor in the success of the IT, online services and electronics sectors of businesses. This business condition, based on organizational culture, facilitates the fulfillment of the corporate mission and vision statements of Apple Inc. The confidentiality and tight control of the tale of new products is key.

Strengths of Apple

The most prominent assets of Apple Inc. are a strong brand identity, high profit margins and successful fast product strategies, according to the new SWOT study. Apple is one of the world’s most valuable and influential companies. Due to its strong brand identity, the company can launch competitive new products. In fact, Apple Inc.’s proprietary marketing approach and aggressive expansion plans include successful rapid creativity and keep the company aware of the latest technologies to provide competitive advantages. Based on this component of Apple Inc’s SWOT analysis, it is difficult to compete with the company’s assets and thus to retain supremacy in the global industry environment. To mitigate the risk of its shortcomings, Apple must use its assets.

Weaknesses of Apple

Internal factors that impede business growth are weaknesses. For Apple, the following industry weaknesses are the most notable: small distribution network, high sales costs and revenue focus on high end segments of the market. Due to the company’s exclusivity strategy, Apple Inc. has a restricted distribution network. Given proprietary benefits, such as the strong control by Apple over the delivery of goods, this vulnerability persists. However, the company has a heavy dependency on revenues in high end market segments because of its premium pricing approach. High prices attract customers from mid and high-income brackets, thus ignoring low-income brackets and make it easy for buyers to buy their goods. It is a significant weakness since high-end companies still form a minority on the global market. In this way, the price and marketing policy of Apple Inc. places constraints and limitations on the product, based on internal considerations.

External Environment Factors of Apple

I will find the most important business prospects in this dimension of Apple Inc.’s external environmental research. Opportunities are potential industry-based variables. Such factors affect market entities ‘ strategic direction. The key challenges for Apple include extending the distribution network, growing sales volumes focused on rising demands, and developing new product lines. The distribution network of Apple Inc. is growing. The vulnerability of the small distribution network of the organization relates directly to the incentive. This analysis illustrates the company’s need to adjust its sales approach. An enhanced network will enable Apple to attract more consumers worldwide. The organization has the potential to improve its sales volumes, particularly for mobile products, by aggressive marketing.

Threats are external factors which impair or reduce the company’s financial results. In Apple’s case: unfair pricing, copying and the increasing cost of labor in several countries are the following most critical threats. Tough market rivalry is partly due to the competitiveness of corporations. Apple competes with companies like Samsung, which also takes advantage of rapid innovation. Aggressive pricing has a limited impact on Apple Inc in the sense of this analysis. Given the aggressive behavior of competing companies, a solid base is required if competitive advantages are to be maintained. The business still faces an imitation hazard. The growing number of local and international companies imitating the style and features of Apple products represents a significant threat. However, increasing labor costs for contract suppliers, such as those in China, are reducing profit margins or driving up selling prices. The efficiency of Apple Inc. could be affected by unfair rivalry and copying of product design depending on the key competitive considerations in this objective study.

Competitor Analysis

Samsung and its Galaxy S models are Apple’s main competitor in the Smartphone category Huawei, HTC, Google and LG are direct Apple competitors. The other competitors either are too low or target different customer markets and do not necessarily threaten the market share or profits of the iPhone.

It is most probable that if one buys one Apple product, there will shortly be another. The interaction between goods from Apple is excellent, they go together, and you can bring everyone out of the Apple network. As many software solutions are accessible only with Apple products, Apple also has built access hurdles for its consumers. On the other hand, competitors ‘ software solutions for Apple products are available, creating an even greater competitive advantage. The corporation continues to develop new products and services and improve existing items, by acquiring and buying third party companies and innovations, which represent their research and development investment, by extending the variety of its products and intellectual property portfolio.

Structure of Apple’s Performance

Apple Inc. has a hierarchical organizational structure, with notable divisional characteristics and a weak functional matrix. The hierarchy is a traditional structural feature in business organizations. The divisional characteristics refer to the product-based grouping within Apple, such as for iOS and macOS. A bird’s-eye view of Apple’s organizational structure shows considerable hierarchy. In the past, everything went through Steve Jobs. Jobs made all the major strategic management decisions. However, under Tim Cook’s leadership, this hierarchy in Apple’s corporate structure has slightly changed. The company now has more collaboration among different parts of the organization, such as software teams and hardware teams.

The hierarchy within the organizational structure of Apple encourages tight operational management power. Hierarchy potentially allows top leaders, such as Tim Cook, to control all aspects of the enterprise. The structure essentially governs business functions and product-based groups by directives by the CEO and other senior managers. The value of the corporate structure of Apple Inc. enables fast and efficient execution of strategic strategy and helps to ensure coherence through Apple Inc.

Conclusion

Internal and external environmental factors are equally important for a company’s success. Such variables not only define the strengths of Apple but allow Apple to diagnose and assess weaknesses. The tangible and intangible assets, leadership styles and strengths of employees, should also be considered, because they can impact organizational effectiveness. Apple may effectively support an organization of systems which will have a positive influence on its operations and allow the organization to remain competitive. Based on the information obtained.